MINER 

The  rectitude  of 
government. 


BV 

4260 

M5 

1884 


Hcctitubc  of  ©ouemment  tl)e  Source 
of  its  Power. 


ELECTION  SERMON 

I  [N    K.   BUTL 

GOVERNOR; 

III  'LIYKU    AMI 

Ll:  GOYERXOli ; 

THt:    HONORABLE    COUNCIL.    AND    THE    LEGISLA- 
TIVE   OF    MASSACHl'SETTS, 

COLUMBUS  AVENUE  UMTERSALIST  CHURCH, 


BY 

A.  A.  MINER,  S.T.D.,   LL.D., 

15O.-TON,    I'ASTOK   OF   TIIK   CHUHCH. 


BOSTON : 
WRK'iHT    ,v    POTTER    PUINTLXd    CO..    STATE    PR  IN 'I 

1884. 


Hectitu&e  of  ©otJtmment  tl)e  Source 
of  its  JJoroer. 


DELIVERED  BEFORE 

HIS  EXCELLENCY  BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER, 

GOVERNOR; 

HIS  HONOR  OLIVER  AMES, 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR  ; 

THE    HONORABLE    COUNCIL,    AND    THE    LEGISLA- 
TURE OF   MASSACHUSETTS,  p 

IN 

COLUMBUS  AYENUE  UNIYERSALIST  CHURCH, 

JANUARY  2,  1884, 

BY 

A.  A.  MINER,  S.T.D.,  LL.D., 

BOSTON,  PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


BOSTON : 

WRIGHT   &  POTTER  PRINTING  CO.,    STATE   PRINTERS. 

18  POST  OFFICE  SQUARE. 

1884. 


C0mm0nfoealtjj  of 


BOSTON,  JANUARY  16,  1884. 

Rev.  Dr.  ALONZO  A.  MINER,  Boston. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  am  directed  by  the  Committee  on  Printing  to  invite 
you  to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  "Annual  Election  Sermon,"  delivered  by 
you  on  January  2d  instant,  to  the  end  that  it  may  be  printed,  as 
provided  by  the  statutes. 

I  am, 

Very  respectfully,  yours, 

HOWES   NORRIS, 
Chairman  of  Committee  on  Printing. 


BOSTON,  JANUARY  18,  1884. 
Hon.  HOWES  NORRIS. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  Herewith  I  transmit  the  manuscript  of  my  Election 
Sermon,  in  accordance  with  your  request. 

Respectfully  yours, 

A.  A.  MINER. 


Ilje  lectttuoe  of  tfowrnmtnt  tljc 
I oum  of  tt0  Power. 


PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Great  and  General  Court: 

Assembled  here  at  the  altar  of  God  in  the  open- 
ing hour  of  your  important  duties,  you  will  permit 
an  humble  citizen  to  congratulate  you,  who  but 
yesterday  stood  among  your  fellow-citizens,  upon 
the  vast  prerogatives  committed  to  your  hands.  In 
the  on-flowing  of  the  stream  of  time,  by  the  voice 
of  this  people,  God  has  called  you  to  be  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  for  1884.  In  some 
respects  the  most  advanced  Commonwealth  in  the 
entire  galaxy  of  states,  Massachusetts  properly 
calls  upon  her  most  distinguished  citizens  to  ad- 
minister her  affairs.  It  is  a  proud  privilege,  on 
general  grounds,  to  be  commissioned  to  preside 
over  her  varied  interests,  to  conserve  her  good 
name  in  all  things  in  which  she  merits  it,  and  by  a 
course  of  unquestionable  patriotism  win  .for  her 
honors  in  fields  she  either  has  not  entered,  or  has 
but  timidly  explored. 


8  Preliminary  Address. 

As  the  government  of  1884,  you  can  neither 
claim  the  honors  already  achieved,  nor  be  held 
responsible  for  the  stains  upon  her  escutcheon  that 
still  remain.  If  you  have  come  to  your  high  duties 
with  truly  patriotic  purpose,  as  we  trust  you  have, 
unpledged  to  aught  that  can  clip  your  wings  in 
your  flight  toward  the  sun,  you  have  opportunity 
for  great  service  that  should  fill  your  hearts  with 
inexpressible  joy. 

It  cannot  but  be  profitable,  then,  to  spend  here 
a  brief  hour  in  which  may  be  struck  the  key-note 
of  all  divine  harmonies  in  life,  in  duty,  in  destiny. 


SERMON. 


''JUSTICE  AND  JUDGMENT  ARE  THE  HABITATION  OF  THY  THRONE: 
MERCY  AND  TRUTH  SHALL  GO  BEFORE  THY  FACE." 

Psalm  Ixxxix,  14. 

Government  is  essentially  a  thing  of  principles. 
All  that  is  visible  about  a  government  is  but  its 
machinery.  Its  offices,  its  elections,  its  function- 
aries of  various  grades  and  duties,  are  transient 
and  changeable.  The  essential  government,  how- 
ever, remains  the  same  through  all  change.  This 
essential  element,  invisible  and  abiding,  is  moral; 
it  is  the  element  of  rectitude,  of  truth  and  justice. 
Penalties,  however  necessary  and  however  faith- 
fully inflicted,  though  a  part  of  the  machinery  of 
government,  are  more  especially  an  indication  of 
the  extent  to  which  what  is  vital  in  the  govern- 
ment has  failed. 

In  the  best  governed  home  the  machinery  of 
government  has  disappeared.  The  will  of  the 
parent  finds  a  welcome  in  the  heart  of  the  child. 


10  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

That  will  is  wisdom  which  the  child  has  learned  to 
appreciate  and  love.  Penalty  is  not  thought  of; 
truth  and  duty  fill  the  horizon,  and  peace  blesses 
the  home. 

Perhaps  our  educational  institutions  make  the 
nearest  approach  to  this  of  any  department  of  our 
government.  Their  strength  lies  in  the  natural 
justice  they  embody,  the  lack  of  which  vitiates  all 
governments.  The  distinguished  Cudworth  says: 
"  Covenants  without  natural  justice  are  nothing 
but  mere  words  and  breath,  and  therefore  can  have 
no  force  to  oblige.  *  *  *  None  can  be  obliged 
in  duty  to  obey,  but  by  natural  justice.  *  *  * 
Whatever  is  iniquitous  can  never  be  made  lawful 
by  any  power  on  earth." 

GOVERNMENT   THE   HIGHEST   FUNCTION   OF   MAN. 

Substantially  moral,  government  thus  becomes 
the  highest  and  divinest  function  of  man  —  the 
embodiment  of  justice  and  truth.  Recognizing  the 
vital  relations  of  the  whole  people,  it  aims  to  give 
protection  to  every  genuine  interest.  Its  pathway 
lies  above  the  plane  of  passion,  appetite,  greed, 
unholy  competitions,  and  every  form  of  sinister 
ambition  and  self-seeking.  It  stretches  out  ts 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  11 

arms  to  raise  up  the  fallen;  never  to  cast  down 
others  among  them.  Its  power  dwells  in  its 
righteousness.  Truth  is  at  once  its  life-blood,  its 
weapon  of  aggressiveness,  and  its  assured  defence. 

It  is  this  invisible  power  that  makes  Christ  a 
king.  He  says:  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world:  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then 
would  my  servants  fight,  that  I  should  not  be 
delivered  to  the  Jews."  He  was  delivered,  con- 
demned, crucified.  All  power  seemed  against  him  ; 
in  fact,  all  power  was  with  him.  What  was  meant 
to  be,  and  seemed,  his  utter  overthrow,  was  but  the 
foundation  of  a  triumph  that  has  enthroned  his 
name  above  every  name.  What  is  power  in 
Christ's  kingdom  would  be  powder  in  all  king- 
doms. 

Human  law  is  nothing  of  itself.  Its  majesty  and 
strength  are  borrowed.  Cicero  says:  "Law  is 
right  reason,  congruous  to  nature,  pervading  all 
minds,  constant,  eternal,  which  calls  to  duty  by  its 
commands,  and  repels  from  wrongdoing  by  its  pro- 
hibitions. *  *  *  This  law  cannot  be  annulled, 
superseded,  or  over-ruled.  ~No  senate,  no  people 
can  loose  us  from  it;  no  interpreter  can  explain  it 
away.  It  is  not  one  law  at  Rome,  another  at 


12  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

Athens;  one  at  present,  another  at  some  future 
time;  but  one  law,  perpetual  and  immutable,  in- 
cludes all  nations  and  all  times.  Of  this  law,  the 
author  and  giver  is  God."  Milton  says,  any 
statute  "  repugnant  to  the  will  of  God  and  to  right 
reason  is  null  and  void."  St.  Augustine  declares 
that,  "in  temporal  laws  nothing  is  righteous  or 
lawful,  but  what  the  people  have  derived  to  them- 
selves out  of  the  Law  Eternal." 

Even  the  divine  government  stands  by  its  recti- 
tude. God's  throne  —  the  symbol  of  his  power  — 
dwells  in  justice  and  judgment.  These  are  its 
habitation;  while  mercy  and  truth  illumine  his 
pathway.  Could  righteousness  and  truth  forsake 
his  throne,  his  government  would  be  government 
no  longer.  Chaos  would  reign  and  all  forces  be- 
come lawless.  A  wild  railway  train,  rushing  on  in 
its  mad  career,  with  no  engineer's  hand  to  guide  it, 
freighted  with  hundreds  of  precious  lives  and  un- 
told commercial  wealth,  spreading  destruction  on 
either  hand,  until  hurled  into  some  yawning  gulf  in 
irremediable  ruin  —  would  be  but  a  faint  illustra- 
tion of  the  devastation  and  woe  that  would  attend 
the  forces  of  nature  when  no  longer  dominated  by 
intelligence  and  righteousness. 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  13 

If  this  would  be  true  of  the  divine  government, 
how  much  more  of  human  governments.  Over 
against  the  lawlessness  of  natural  forces  would 
stand  the  vagrant  ambitions  of  all  who  have  any 
part  in  the  functions  of  government.  The  visible 
processes,  the  ostensible  aims,  the  cunning  manipu- 
lation of  those  functions,  would  still  go  on;  but 
all  that  constitutes  these  functions  a  government 
would  have  departed,  leaving  a  semblance  of  gov- 
ernment operated  by  a  chaos  of  passions  to  selfish 
ends. 

ROOTS   OF   GOVERNMENT. 

The  roots  of  government  are  not  arbitrary  as- 
sumptions. They  involve  certain  absolute  and 
universal  principles — principles  which  fasten  upon 
every  man,  woman  and  child;  involve  their  re- 
lationship to  each  other  and  to  the  government 
itself;  make  the  welfare  of  each  the  welfare  of  all, 
and  the  defection  of  each  the  curse  of  all  —  prin- 
ciples out  of  which,  as  the  French  phrase  it,  springs 
the  solidarity,  not  of  a  city,  state,  or  nation  alone, 
but  of  the  whole  human  race  —  which  must  be 
recognized  and  acted  upon  to  secure  the  highest 
good  of  any,  and  the  disregard  of  which  blasts  the 


14  The  Rectitude  of  Q-overnment 

hopes  of  all.  Such  disregard  not  only  voids  the 
moral  power  of  a  government,  but  blackens  it  with 
rapacity  and  usurpation. 

Hence  the  very  beginnings  of  ostensible  gov- 
ernment go  far  to  determine  its  character.  Citi- 
zens, more  or  less  numerous,  organize  for 
political  ends,  —  presumably  for  patriotic  ends, — 
presumably  to  grapple  with  and  sternly  remove 
any  great  evil  under  which  the  commonwealth 
suffers.  To  reject  such  work  is  to  emasculate 
the  movement  at  the  outset,  and  make  themselves 
cumberers  of  the  ground.  Manifold  social  dangers 
are  to  be  guarded  against.  The  ignorant  must  be 
enlightened,  the  poor  fed,  causes  of  disease  re- 
moved, robbers  guarded  against,  passion  controlled, 
.criminal  enterprises  suppressed,  public  indecencies 
prevented,  free  commerce  in  all  things  useful  en- 
couraged, sympathetic  relations  between  employers 
and  employees  fostered,  liberal  expenditures  in 
support  of  educational  and  other  beneficent  insti- 
tutions and  economy  in  all  else  practised,  inex- 
pensive and  prompt  execution  of  the  laws  guaran- 
teed, and  the  general  welfare  promoted.  As  said 
an  English  statesman,  "  it  is  the  very  business  of 
government  to  make  it  as  easy  as  possible  to  do 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  15 

right,  and  as  difficult  as  possible  to  do  wrong." 
Presumably  this  is  what  any  conspicuous  political 
movement  means. 

THE   TEMPTATION. 

But,  adopting  the  aphorism  of  the  old  Syrian 
philosopher :  "  To-day  ought  to  be  the  disciple  of 
yesterday,"  how  almost  instinctively  do  we  assume 
degeneracy  from  our  ideal.  Not  only  do  we  come 
short  of  these  high  ends,  but  often  turn  our  backs 
upon  them,  and  not  seldom  deliberately  strengthen 
the  evils  we  should  remove. 

Let  us  consider  the  marvellous  course  of  this 
degeneracy. 

Its  source,  I  need  not  say,  is  in  the  vitiated 
state  of  the  public  mind.  The  public  thought 
is  modified  by  numerous  collateral  influences. 
The  press  profits  by  conforming  to  it,  and  in 
turn  often  intensifies  and  emboldens  what  is  evil 
in  it.  Aspirants  for  place  are  careful  not  to 
rebuke  it,  if  they  do  not  apologize  for  or  even 
defend  it.  The  clergy  become  discreet  in  view 
of  it,  and  deal  in  "  glittering  generalities."  Se- 
vere in  their  forms  of  faith,  they  kindly  point 
sinners-in-the-abstract  to  the  warm  welcome  they 


16  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

will  receive  beyond  the  Styx;  but  the  only  infer- 
num  they  appear  to  believe  in  for  clerical  sinners- 
in-the-concrete,  who  rashly  reject  campaign  dicta, 
is  the  hell  of  current  unpopularity. 

By  a  kind  of  physiological  law,  this  poison  in  the 
body  politic,  like  a  cancer  in  the  human  body, 
sends  its  death-dealing  influence  through  all  its 
veins  and  arteries,  undermining  its  constitution, 
wasting  its  substance,  and  gravely  threatening  its 
entire  overthrow. 

The  diagnosis  of  the  disease  is  not  difficult. 
What  the  more  clamorous  and  less  scrupulous  of 
the  voting  population  desire  is  carefully  noted.  A 
committee,  not  wholly  self-constituted,  whose  top- 
most aim  is  success  at  whatever  cost,  survey  the 
.field;  put  out  feelers  through  the  press,  watching 
the  responses;  gradually  concentrate  public  atten- 
tion upon  some  one  man  or  measure,  and  thus 
create  a  boom  that  shall  enable  them  to  rouse  the 
public  heart. 

Then  comes  a  convention.  The  genius  of  the 
committee  displays  itself;  for,  be  it  remembered, 
the  committee  is  the  convention  ;  and  the  conven- 
tion is  the  committee  inflated.  Trained  in  its 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  17 

duties,  it  returns  a  clean-cut  echo  to  every  note 
the  committee  sounds  in  its  ears. 

Next,  its  platform — what  shall  it  be?  Meas- 
ures involving  the  highest  good  of  the  state?  That 
would  be  the  course  of  patriots  ;  and  however 
small  the  number  ready  to  sustain  such  measures, 
they  would  be  emphasized  and  insisted  on.  The 
campaign  would  then  be  a  great  missionary  strug- 
gle in  which  mercy  and  truth  would  emblazon  the 
banner,  and  justice  and  judgment  sound  the  bugle 
call  to  duty. 

But  this  convention  is  organizing  for  numerical 
success.  Measures  involving  the  highest  good  of 
the  state  would  alienate  all  its  criminal  classes. 
Numerical  success  without  them  is  impossible. 
We  cannot  wait  for  the  slow  process  of  lifting 
them  up  to  us  ;  we  must  therefore  go  down  to 
them.  True,  they  are  the  dregs  of  the  city,  but 
they  are  the  make-weight  in  its  overshadowing 
influence.  "We  cannot  offend  them  and  win.  We 
must  divide  them  and  secure  a  portion  at  least  of 
this  despicable  following  to  swell  our  retinue  and 
illumine  the  glory  of  our  victory. 

Conforming  to  these  exigencies,  our  committee 
avoid  as  much  as  possible  what  is  vital  in  the  inter- 


18  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

ests  of  the  hour,  applaud  the  achievements  of  the 
more  or  less  distant  past,  pour  broadsides  of  hot 
shot  —  oftentimes  of  personal  and  party  malignity, 
under  the  thin  guise  of  righteous  indignation  — 
into  the  ranks  of  their  hereditary  foe,  and  then  call 
loudly  upon  the  entire  commonwealth  to  mark  the 
splendors  of  their  achievements. 

As  accidents  are  liable  to  happen,  however,  and 
as  resolutions  may  be  thrust  in  demanding  an  in- 
convenient expression  where  it  was  predetermined 
to  be  silent,  a  pit  for  such  missiles  is  commonly  dug 
by  referring  all  resolutions  to  a  committee  who  will 
judiciously  forget  to  report  on  them.  Not  a  word 
is  permitted  to  be  uttered  save  by  the  trusted  ser- 
vants of  the  proposed  method  of  success.  The 
nominations  are  made,  the  nominees  commonly 
handicapped,  and  the  campaign  begins. 

Where  now  is  the  moral  power  of  such  a  con- 
vention? Not  in  its  high  moral  aims  ;  it  repudiated 
these  in  the  beginning.  Not  in  the  tone  of  its 
following  ;  it  deliberately  lowered  that  tone  for 
numbers.  Not  in  its  nominees,  however  excellent 
in  personal  character  ;  for  they  represent  not  them- 
selves, but  the  emptiness  of  their  platform.  Not 
only  is  its  moral  power  gone,  but  a  kind  of  neces- 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  19 

sity,  springing  from  its  environment,  compels  all 
who  follow  its  lead  to  do  mischief  throughout  the 
struggle.  Though  themselves  silent  on  highest 
matters,  there  are  others  who  will  not  be  silent. 
To  counteract  their  influence  and  secure  the  neces- 
sary numbers,  highest  matters  must  be  depreciated 
or  perverted,  and  the  judgment  of  citizens  corrup- 
ted, until  honest  men,  both  clerical  and  lay,  are 
seduced  to  the  support  of  measures  they  loathe. 

THE    CORRUPTION    SPREADS. 

This  viciousness  of  the  beginnings  tends  to  cor- 
ruption in  all  subsequent  stages.  The  divine 
prerogatives  of  the  franchise  are  employed  to  per- 
sonal ends.  Legislation  is  shaped,  not  by  the  evils 
to  be  removed,  but  by  the  perpetrators  of  those 
evils  who  resist  their  removal.  Innumerable  apol- 
ogies for  the  wrongs  thus  committed  are  made  to 
solace  troubled  consciences,  and  the  rougher  work 
is  passed  over  to  the  less  scrupulous  co-operators. 
Innocent  maxims  misapplied,  blind  the  eye,  deafen 
the  ear,  and  harden  the  heart.  The  "  half-loaf" 
adage  is  made  to  justify  compromises  that  surren- 
der the  field  to  evil.  The  duty  of  "taking  the 
world  as  one  finds  it,"  is  made  an  excuse  for  leav- 


20  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

ing  it  in  the  same  condition,  or  even  in  a  worse 
one.  Voting  for  righteousness  in  a  minority,  is 
assumed  to  be  "  the  throwing  away  of  one's  vote  ;" 
while  the  truth  is  the  compromising  of  one's  con- 
science, with  however  great  a  majority,  is  the 
throwing  away  of  the  voter. 

BKIBERT. 

Undoubtedly  the  corruption  of  the  ballot,  politi- 
cally speaking,  is  the  giant  evil  of  our  land.  We 
carefully  guard  by  penalties  against  bribery  by 
money  ;  but  are  there  no  briberies  by  office,  by  in- 
direct and  incidental  gains,  by  the  profits  of  crimi- 
nal business,  by  the  promise  of  legislation  for  pet 
measures?  Constituted  as  our  government  is,  are 
not  the  very  evils,  which  make  government  neces- 
sary, bribes  to  the  nullifying  of  its  power? 

It  is  stated  that  at  our  recent  city  election,  voters 
in  a  state  of  helpless  inebriety  had  ballots  thrust 
into  their  hands,  and  were  lifted  by  fellow-voters 
to  the  ballot-box,  to  express  their  patriotic  judg- 
ment in  favor  of  license. 

But  acting  with  others,  it  is  said,  is  a  necessity 
under  popular  governments  ;  and  if  we  refuse  co- 
operation because  of  the  support  we  should  give  to 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  21 

criminal  enterprises,  others  will  combine  to  give  us 
a  still  worse  government.  It  is  a  matter  of  grave 
doubt  when  we  have  brought  ourselves  to  vote  for 
cr;minal  measures,  whether  there  is  any  danger  of 
others  doing  worse.  Should  they  attempt  it,  how- 
ever, they  would  have  our  example  for  a  defence. 
The  highest  moral  service  a  man  can  render  is  not 
unfrequently  to  step  squarely  out  and  refuse  all 
participation  in  current  evils.  Sinning  is  not  at  all 
a  question  of  garb.  The  highest  and  the  lowest 
ranks  of  society  meet  together.  The  one,  it  may 
be,  in  broadcloth  ;  the  other  in  rags  ;  but  they 
drink  the  same  beer.  There  they  are  on  a  level. 
Disgraceful,  shameful,  but  true ! 

SANCTION  NULLIFIES   LIMITATION. 

Our  theory  of  sanctioning  an  evil  that  we  may 
limit  it,  is  but  a  dream.  Those  who  ask  for  such 
laws  want  the  sanction  but  by  no  means  the  limi- 
tations. In  practice  they  always  resist,  and  suc- 
cessfully resist  the  limitations  whatever  they  may 
be.  The  vaunted  restrictions  which  we  put  into 
law,  are  not,  never  were,  never  will  be,  were  never 
intended  to  be,  and  never  can  be  executed.  For 
ten  days  in  November  1872,  independent  of  all 


22  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

law,  the  dram-shop  business  in  Boston  was  closed 
by  the  chief  of  police;  besides  which  period,  there 
probably  has  not  been  one  hour,  night  or  day, 
Sundays  included,  for  fifty  years,  when  a  citizen 
could  not  somewhere  get  his  dram.  In  giving 
our  sanction  to  such  evils,  we  cast  away  all  moral 
power.  Our  sanction  repudiates  the  divine  law. 
The  violator  of  our  restrictions  tramples  only  on 
human  law,  and  places  himself  on  our  broader 
repudiation.  He  stands  with  us  on  the  same  base 
of  evil. 

OFFICERS,    NOT    CITIZENS,    EXECUTORS    OF   LAW. 

The  acknowledged  weakness  of  existing  crim- 
inal laws  is  sometimes  urged  as  a  ground  of  their 
continuance,  —  the  specious  plea  being,  "  We  have 
more  law  than  the  people  will  execute."  The 
truth  is,  we  have  laws  that  cannot  be  executed  — 
laws  that  would  not  cure  the  evils  ostensibly 
aimed  at,  if  they  were  executed.  We  refuse  to 
enact  laws  that  can  be  executed,  and  which  if 
executed  would  be  a  remedy,  —  refuse  because 
they  can  be  executed,  and  because  if  executed 
they  would  be  a  remedy. 

But  the  plea  is  radically  objectionable  in  another 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  23 

particular.  It  assumes  that  the  people,  in  their 
capacity  as  citizens,  should  execute  the  laws; 
while,  in  fact,  having  determined  by  law  what 
should  be  done,  they  provide  themselves  with 
officers  of  the  law  to  do  it,  and  tax  themselves 
liberally  to  pay  them. 

Here  the  State  is  doomed  to  still  further  disap- 
pointment. The  moment  those  officers  of  the  law 
meet  with  difficulty,  which  will  be  the  moment 
they  enter  honestly  upon  their  duty,  and  find  their 
nerve,  integrity  and  manliness  subjected  to  fearful 
strain,  they  turn  pale,  desert  their  post,  and  claim 
that  public  opinion  does  not  sustain  them.  They 
do  not  resign,  throw  up  the  emoluments  of  office, 
and  take  themselves  out  of  the  way  —  which  would 
be  decent  and  manly;  but  continue  nominally  the 
servants  of  the  state,  accept  the  bribes  of  ineffi- 
ciency, and  nullify  the  law  —  which  is  indecent, 
unmanly. 

The  only  public  opinion  an  officer  of  the  law 
has  a  right  to  know  anything  about  is  that  which 
has  been  expressed  through  the  forms  of  law. 
Any  other  yielding  to  a  supposed  public  opinion 
subjects  us  to  a  government  of  men  who  arbitrarily 
displace  the  government  of  laws.  Thus  in  casting 


24  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

aside  patriotic  integrity  and  high  moral  obligation 
at  the  outset,  we  lay  the  foundation  for,  and  by 
our  example  justify,  the  vitiating  of  governmental 
processes  at  every  stage. 

ILLUSTRATIVE    HISTORY. 

All  too  emphatic  an  illustration  of  these  prin- 
ciples is  furnished  in  the  history  of  our  own  Com- 
monwealth. From  1855  to  1868,  a  law  stood 
graven  on  our  statute-books,  luminous  in  its 
righteousness;  constitutionally  unassailable;  before 
which  the  government  of  the  Commonwealth  trem- 
bled like  an  aspen  leaf  for  twelve  long  years,  lacking 
equally  the  courage  to  repeal  it  and  the  manliness  to 
execute  it ;  in  whose  iron  grip  the  stoutest  violators 
were  dashed  to  the  earth,  —  six  hundred  of  whom 
in  the  space  of  four  weeks,  in  1867,  pledged  them- 
selves to  the  district  attorney  of  Suffolk  County  that 
if  the  State  was  in  earnest  they  would  not  contend, 
but  would  surrender  the  business;  a  law  which 
withstood  like  an  adamantine  wall  the  shocks  of 
its  violators ;  and  against  which  the  syren  influence 
of  a  martialed  array  of  ex-officials,  dignitaries, 
clergy,  physicians  and  citizens,  vainly  led  by  the 
most  distinguished  ex-governor  Massachusetts 


The  Source  of  Us  Power.  2£ 

ever  had,  under  the  specious  pretext  of  substitut- 
ing for  it  something  more  efficient  —  in  connection 
with  his  colleague  exhibiting  an  ability  and  energy 
for  which  its  violators  gladly  paid  $15,000  to  the 
one  and  $5,000  to  the  other,  —  all  in  the  name  of 
the  merchants  of  Boston,  while  both  they  and  the 
merchants  were  the  tools  of  men  whom  the  law 
would  have  sent  to  prison  —  such  a  law,  impregna- 
ble by  open  assault,  yielded  at  length  to  covert 
foes  attacking  it  through  "ways  that  were  dark, 
and  tricks  that  were  vain." 

A  single  year,  however,  of  the  unmitigated  woes 
that  followed,  produced  on  the  part  of  the  State  a 
spontaneous  purpose,  as  evinced  in  the  election,  to 
return  to  the  law  which  had  been  lost. 

OFFICIAL    WEAKNESS. 

Notwithstanding  this  decided  action  of  the  Com- 
monwealth in  the  proposed  restoration  of  the  law 
—  action  which  should  have  emboldened  the  timid, 
removed  all  mental  confusion,  and  strengthened  the 
feeble  knees  —  its  good  work  was  nullified  by  the 
weakness  of  a  governor,  who,  counselled  by  men, 
partisans  first  and  patriots  afterwards,  broke  the 
integrity  of  the  law,  and  opened  the  way  for  it& 


26  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

complete  destruction.  By  this  rupture,  seemingly 
of  slight  importance,  as  by  the  puncture  of  an  ar- 
tery in  the  human  body,  all  its  life-blood  soon  ran 
out. 

Fifteen  years  have  elapsed,  and  the  policy  of  the 
state,  by  insensible  stages,  has  been  entirely  re- 
versed. Suppression  has  given  place  to  protection. 
Partisan  policy  has  triumphed  over  righteous  prin- 
ciple ;  and  the  moral  confidence  of  the  people  is 
paralyzed. 

When  will  a  change  come  ?  It  is  said,  "  Public 
opinion  is  not  yet  ripe  for  it."  It  was  ripe  fifteen 
years  ago  ;  why  is  it  corrupt  to-day  ?  What  is  the 
government  doing  to  ripen  it  and  restore  the  moral 
tone  of  the  past?  By  what  philosophy  do  we 
expect  to  raise  up  public  opinion,  while  we  are 
steadily  dragging;it  down?  How  long  will  it  take 
three  hundred  thousand  determined  supporters  of 
an  evil  to  accomplish  the  suppression  of  that  evil? 

DIFFERENCES    OF    OPINION. 

But  it  is  claimed  that  there  are  differences  of 
opinion  about  the  evils  themselves.  I  deny  it  — 
deliberately,  emphatically,  solemnly  deny  it.  King 
and  clown,  barrister  and  blackleg,  grocer  and 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  27 

groom,  clergy  and  laity,  cooper  and  carpenter,  phy- 
sician and  fool,  all  alike  know  that  these  evils  are 
simply  indescribable.     The  arguments  of  the  ab- 
stainer and  the  excuses  of  the  drinker,  the  pleader 
for  suppression  and   the   struggle!*  for  toleration, 

alike  show  that  these  woes  are  known  and  read  of 

i 

all  men.     There  are,  indeed,  alleged  differences  o 
opinion,  growing  out  of  real  differences  of  tempta- 
tion, in  view  of  which  angels  weep  and  broken- 
hearted mothers  die. 

It  was  the  same  when  the  curse  of  slavery  was 
upon  us.  A  few  men  and  women  made  themselves 
heard,  as  with  the  voice  of  the  clarion,  through  all 
the  land.  The  cry  of  fanaticism  was  raised  against 
them  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  and 
a  price  was  set  upon  their  heads.  Meantime  fugi- 
tive slaves  were  hunted  like  wild  beasts.  Nobody 
remembered  that  the  black  man  is  a  brother.  The 
South  professed  to  believe  that  slavery  was  a  great 
missionary  institution  for  the  salvation  of  the  black 
race.  The  North  doubted  its  original  divinity,  but 
because  of  the  compromises  of  our  fathers  believed 
it  a  duty  to  maintain  it. 

We  found  ourselves  slave-catchers,  indeed,  but 
it  brought  us  special  political  and  commercial  ad- 


28  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

vantages.  Even  our  clergy  rose  to  the  dignity  of 
defending  slavery  from  the  Bible  —  adducing 
Paul's  letter  to  Philemon  to  whom  he  sent  back 
the  bond-servant  Onesimus  —  forgetting,  however, 
Paul's  special  charge  to  Philemon,  to  receive  Ones- 
imus as  no  longer  a  bond-servant,  but  as  a  brother 
beloved.  Now  that  slavery  is  removed,  not  only 
is  the  judgment  of  politicians  corrected,  but  there 
is  scarcely  a  belated  priest  in  all  the  pulpits  of 
Christendom  that  dreams  of  defending  it.  The 
simple  solution  is,  temptation  is  gone. 

So  when  our  descendants  shall  have  escaped 
from  the  chronic  curse  of  Christendom,  they  will 
look  back  with  unutterable  shame  upon  their  line- 
age. They  can  then  estimate  the  quality  of  our 
intelligence,  the  shocking  immorality  of  our  ethics, 
the  stupidity  of  our  economics,  and  the  hollowness 
of  our  religion,  in  which  we  celebrate  the  death  of 
our  Lord  in  a  wine  as  spurious  as  our  patriotism 
and  as  hypocritical  as  our  piety. 

UNANIMITY    IN    METHOD. 

Nor  are  there,  among  earnest  people,  any  grave 
differences  in  respect  to  methods  of  dealing  with 
our  overshadowing  woes.  A  timid,  half-hearted, 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  29 

meddling  policy  has  prevailed  for  centuries.  This 
has  worn  out  the  patience  of  the  public,  aroused 
the  anger  of  the  vicious,  and  left  the  evil  to  develop 
itself  in  its  own  destructive  way.  Those  wishing 
to  put  an  end  to  these  woes  are  substantially 
agreed  in  regard  to  method.  With  wondrous 
unanimity,  through  all  sections  of  our  country,  and 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  these  demand  unqual- 
ified suppression. 

Those  who  seek  only  limitation  of  the  evils, 
keeping  an  open  door  for  personal  indulgence, 
talk  wisely  about  "  regulation."  And,  in  their  pre- 
tended desire  to  "regulate,"  they  make  about  every 
ten  years  the  circuit  of  all  possible  shifts  in  the  law 
—  from  screen  to  back-door  and  back-door  to 
screen,  from  Sundays  to  midnight  and  midnight  to 
Sundays,  from  minors  to  drunkards  and  drunkards 
to  minors,  from  landlords  to  tenants  and  tenants  to 
landlords,  taking  in  school-house  and  civil-damage 
laws  by  the  way  —  like  the  goose  that  stands  on 
one  leg  till  weary,  then  shifts  to  the  other  —  re- 
maining a  goose,  however,  all  the  same. 

Of  the  125  men  called,  in  1867,  to  testify  before  a 
joint  committee  of  the  legislature  in  favor  of  "reg- 
ulation "  as  against  prohibition,  but  a  single  one  of 


30  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

the  number  denied  that  he  was  a  patron  of  the  cup. 
Such  men  keep  an  eye  to  their  own  convenience, 
and  cannot  be  expected  to  give  a  verdict  against 
themselves. 

Under  the  existing  state  of  our  laws,  the  moral 
power  of  the  best  sentiment  of  the  Commonwealth 
is  weakened,  and  the  practical  result  of  its  expres- 
sion in  a  large  measure  lost.  The  great  majority 
of  the  towns  and  many  of  the  cities  vote  to  suppress 
the  traffic  ;  but  their  proximity  to  other  towns  and 
cities  voting  adversely,  deprives  them  of  a  large 
measure  of  the  advantages  they  would  otherwise 
enjoy,  both  in  regard  to  excluding  the  prohibited 
commodity  and  paralyzing  the  arm  of  the  civil 
authorities  in  executing  the  law. 

Besides,  the  Commonwealth  is  disintegrated. 
The  cities  and  towns  voting  for  suppression,  aban- 
don the  sober,  industrious,  prudent  citizens  of  other 
municipalities,  and  especially  of  Boston,  to  be  the 
prey  of  the  criminal  depredators  with  which  they 
abound.  This  abandonment  of  its  best  citizens  on 
the  part  of  the  State,  not  to  say  its  treachery 
towards  them,  cannot  be  too  strongly  condemned. 
Why  should  an  honest  man  living  in  the  neighbor- 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  31 

hood  of  thieves  be  subjected  to  the   pleasure   of 
those  thieves  whether  to  rob  him  or  not. 

DUTIES    OF   THE    STATE. 

The  State  has  duties  towards  all  its  citizens  - 
not  simply  to  punish  criminals  after  the  act  ;  but 
as  far  as  possible  to  prevent  the  crime  itself.  The 
State  is  the  law-maker.  Having  enacted  whole- 
some laws,  it  should  have  the  manliness  to  see 
them  executed.  It  is  paltry  to  give  a  man  the  priv- 
ilege of  voting  a  nuisance  next  door  to  me,  when 
he  would  not  tolerate  it  next  door  to  himself.  It 
is  paltry  for  the  State  to  cast  off  its  legislative  re- 
sponsibilities that  it  may  have  smoother  sailing  on 
the  dead  sea  of  politics.  It  is  more  than  paltry  — 
it  is  criminal  in  the  State  to  expose  the  lives  of 
wives  and  children  to  the  fury  of  husbands  and 
fathers  sent  home  dehumanized  from  our  thousands 
of  "regulated"  fountains  of  death.  The  wife  is 
powerless  ;  the  children  are  powerless  ;  the  mad- 
dened husband  is  free  till  the  terrible  crime  is  com- 
mitted. Then  the  royal  dignity  of  the  law  steps  in 
to  punish.  Whom?  The  criminal  law-maker? 
The  commissioner  who  so  judiciously  does  the 
"  regulating?  "  The  servant  of  the  State  who  deals 


32  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

out  the  potations?  None  of  these!  The  wretch 
who  was  first  tempted,  then  debauched,  then  infu- 
riated, and  finally  ground  to  powder  between  the 
upper  and  nether  millstone  of  the  "  State-regu- 
lated "  machinery  for  supplying  victims  to  the 
courts,  the  prisons,  and  the  gallows  —  he  is  the 
culprit.  Does  punishing  him  bring  back  the  wife 
or  children?  Does  it  awake  the  State  to  a  sense 
of  its  diabolism?  Does  it  disturb  the  pious  devo- 
tions of  men  who  rent  their  real  estate  at  a  hundred 
per  cent  advance  for  purposes  of  evil,  and  then  pray 
God  to  put  an  end  to  such  evils?  Moral  power  in 
governments! — seemingly  so  deep  is  the  abyss  in 
which  they  are  sunk  that  plummet  and  line  cannot 
fathom  it.  Publius  Syrus  says,  "  The  judge  is  con- 
'  demned  when  the  guilty  is  acquitted." 

But  all  is  not  lost.  There  is  a  protesting  sense 
of  responsibility  in  thousands  of  breasts  which 
calls  a  halt.  Who  can  better  afford  to  hear  that 
call  than  the  legislature  before  me?  Untrammelled, 
I  trust,  by  any  embarrassing  pledges ;  free  to 
speak  the  best  word  and  do  the  best  thing  with 
boldness  and  emphasis  ;  you  can  strike  the  key- 
note of  measures  that  will  crown  the  State  with 
honor. 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  33 

ABANDON   THE   HUTS. 

But  you  must  escape  from  the  ruts.  You  need 
not  sound  a  trumpet  before  yo^i.  Your  action, 
however,  must  be  unambiguous  and  firm.  Evil  is 
far  from  being  formidable  when  it  is  heroically  con- 
fronted. The  tiger  quails  when  you  look  him 
sharply  in  the  eye.  Besides,  unexpected  allies  will 
arise.  Many  a  man  is  held  in  the  ranks  of  the  foe 
by  the  force  of  his  surroundings.  Such  will  wel- 
come deliverance.  Many  a  conscience,  long  re- 
pressed, is  ready  to  assert  itself  and  come  to  your 
aid.  Many  a  citizen,  apathetic  through  despair, 
will  enter  with  a  bound  the  resurrection  life.  Let 
your  good  work  be  pronounced,  and  the  State  will 
draw  a  deep  breath  of  satisfaction. 

First  of  all  give  over  all  thoughts  of  the  people 
executing  the  laws.  Bid  the  proper  officers,  whom 
the  people  have  provided,  execute  them.  If  they 
fail,  remove  them.  Look  about  yourselves,  and 
you  will  find  great  resources  at  your  command  for 
such  a  work.  If  you  do  not  find  them,  make  them. 
A  new  life  would  thus  be  at  once  breathed  into 
law  ;  and  all  around  you  the  dead  would  live. 


34  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

GOVERN    THE    CITIES. 

Apply  this  thoroughness  especially  to  cities. 
Reject  absolutely  the  assumption  that  cities  cannot 
be  governed.  The  chronic  method  of  shamming 
the  government  must  be  abolished.  The  discrimi- 
nations unknown  to  the  law  must  cease.  There 
can  be  no  government  where  the  victim  in  broad- 
cloth is  sent  by  carriage  to  his  home,  and  the  vic- 
tim in  corduroys  is  sent  by  the  court  to  Deer  Is- 
land. Let  law  be  alike  law  on  Beacon  Street  and 
on  ^orth  Street.  A  change  of  personnel  in  the 
officers  may  be  necessary.  Bouncing  beer-barrels 
may  be  very  inadequate  protection  against  beer- 
shops.  But  Berkshire  hills  abound  in  living 
springs  ;  and  the  chief  Executive  possesses  great, 
though  hitherto  unused,  powers. 

TRUST    THE    PEOPLE. 

Then,  by  all  means,  trust  the  people.  Trust 
them  as  a  whole  —  not  in  detachments  —  not  in 
squads  —  not  in  guerilla  bands  of  covert  marauders. 
Trust  the  rank  and  file  of  the  great  army  of  patri- 
ots on  the  open  battle-field  of  the  State.  Fear  not 
to  submit  to  them  the  highest  questions.  Let  them 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  35 

pronounce  as  a  whole  whether  they  will  be  gov- 
erned from  above  or  from  beneath.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  of  their  decision.  The  thirteen  cities 
of  the  State,  voting  Dec.  4,  taken  together,  declared 
themselves  patriots.  Boston,  even,  Dec.  11,  sug- 
gests an  interesting  query.  Casting  over  53,000 
votes  for  mayor,  it  gave  less  than  23,000  for  license, 
and  more  than  13,000  against  license  ;  while  more 
than  17,000  voting  for  mayor  did  not  vote  on  the 
dram-shop  question. 

Notice  three  things  :  1.  The  friends  of  the 
dram-shop  are,  doubtless,  mainly  included  in  the 
23,000  yea  votes.  2.  The  majority  of  yeas  over 
nays  was  less  than  10,000  votes.  3.  Had  the  17,- 
000  non- voters,  many  of  whom  were  apathetic  be- 
cause they  deemed  the  effort  useless,  given  their 
judgment  at  the  polls,  it  is  probable  that  the  10,000 
license  majority  would  have  been  overcome,  and 
some  thousands  scored  on  the  side  of  righteous- 
ness. However  that  may  be,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  any  excess  that  might  have  remained,  would 
be  largely  overborne  by  the  decisive  action  of  other 
parts  of  the  State. 


36  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

MAGNITUDE    OF    THE   PROBLEM. 

And  what  a  problem  is  this!  The  New  York 
Tribune,  since  the  days  of  Horace  Greeley  never 
suspected  of  radicalism,  under  the  title  of  "  SIZE  OF 
THE  TEMPERANCE  QUESTION,"  gave  a  long  and  se- 
rious editorial,  Sept.  27,  1882,  from  which  I  make 
the  following  extracts : 

"  It  does  no  good  for  men  to  sneer  at  the  agitation  in 
regard  to  the  liquor  traffic.  The  subject  is  too  important 
to  be  laughed  down." 

*•******•« 

"  Aside  from  the  law-defying  spirit  which  it  has  elicited  ,. 
aside  from  all  its  moral  and  religious  aspects,  the  ques- 
tion considered  purely  as  one  of  dollars  and  cents,  in  its 
effect  upon  the  national  prosperity  and  wealth,  is  one  of 
the  most  important  that  can  be  named." 

"Directly  and  indirectly,  this  country  spends  in  the 
liquor  traffic  every  year  a  sum  exceeding  half  the  national 
debt.  The  cost  of  that  traffic  to  the  country,  direct  and 
indirect,  is  greater  than  the  profits  of  all  its  capital  not 
invested  in  real  estate.  It  costs  every  year  more  than 
our  whole  civil  service,  our  army,  our  navy,  our  congress, 
including  the  river  and  harbor  and  the  pension  bills,  our 
wasteful  local  governments,  and  all  national,  state,  county 
and  local  debts,  besides  all  the  schools  in  the  country. 
In  fact,  this  nation  pays  more  for  liquor  than  for  every 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  37 

function  of  every  kind  of  government.     How  is  a  ques- 
tion of  that  size  to  be  put  aside  with  a  sneer  ?  " 

********** 

"  There  is  certainly  spent  for  drink  more  than  $800,- 
000,000,  and  the  entire  sum  raised  by  taxes  of  all  kinds, 
national,  state,  county,  city,  town  and  school  district,  is 
stated  on  authority  of  the  Census  Bureau  to  be  not  more 
than  about  $700,000,000." 

"  But  the  cost  of  the  liquor  drunk  is  not  by  any  means 
the  whole  cost  of  the  liquor  traffic.  An  official  report, 
prepared  with  much  labor  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Massachusetts,  under  authority  from  the  legislature, 
states  that  84  per  cent  of  all  the  crime  and  criminal 
expenses  in  that  State  comes  directly  from  the  abuse  of 
liquor.  There  are  at  least  one  in  twenty  of  the  able- 
bodied  men  in  this  country  who  are  rendered  idle  by 
their  habits  or  incapacitated  for  work,  and  these  persons, 
at  the  ordinary  wages  of  working  men,  would  earn,  if 
industrious  and  fairly  employed,  over  $200,000,000 
yearly." 
********** 

' '  But  the  time  has  gone  by  in  this  country  when  a 
serious  discussion  of  a  question  that  involves  such  a  vast 
expense  to  the  nation  can  be  prevented  by  bullying, 
intolerance,  insolence  or  ridicule.  This  very  practical 
people,  having  begun  to  think  about  the  matter  in  earnest, 
perceives  that  it  is  much  too  important  to  be  put  aside  at 
the  dictation  of  saloon-keepers.  It  is  certain  that  the 
-entire  savings  of  the  people  and  all  additions  to  their 
wealth  are  not  twice  as  much  as  the  sum  expended  for 


38  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

liquor,  and  because  of  the  abuse  of  liquor.  If  any  just 
and  reasonable  proposition  can  be  made  that  will  add  one- 
half  to  the  savings  and  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  it 
will  not  be  put  down  by  a  sneer,  nor  defeated  by  a  law- 
breaking  mob." 

Consider  well  these  extracts.  Why  should  the 
enormous  burden  of  the  drink  tax,  $800,000,000  a 
year,  continue  to  rest  upon  our  country;  or  $30,- 
000,000  a  year  on  our  own  Commonwealth?  All 
this,  with  a  like  sum  to  repair  the  damages,  is  an 
utter  and  absolute  waste;  though  some  political 
economists  do  not  appear  to  know  it.  Gather  the 
cereals  of  a  country,  convert  them  into  whiskey 
or  beer,  transport  it  to  tide-water,  pour  it  into  the 
sea  —  is  there  any  doubt  that  it  would  be  an 
utter  and  shameful  waste?  Is  it  any  the  less  a 
waste  if  on  its  way  to  the  sea,  in  the  language 
of  the  eloquent  Chapin,  "  it  is  strained  through 
the  human  stomach  and  spoils  the  strainer?" 

HOLOCAUST    OF   A   HUNDRED    THOUSAND   LIVES. 

Out  of  the  holocaust  of  a  hundred  thousand  lives, 
annually  sacrificed  in  our  country  to  Bacchus  and 
Gambrinus  —  we  are  not  heathens;  we  are  a  Chris- 
tian people  —  four  thousand  of  them  fill  newly 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  39 

made  graves  in  Massachusetts  soil.  Thousands 
more,  enslaved  by  appetite,  are  in  daily  training  to 
follow  in  their  turn.  Monday  morning,  Dec.  17, 
one  hundred  and  five  victims  passed  through  the 
Central  Municipal  Court  of  Boston  alone,  leaving 
the  South  Boston,  Charlestown  and  Highland 
courts  unreported.  And  this  was  by  no  means  a 
"field  day."  Meantime  every  hospital,  inebriate 
home  and  place  of  confinement  is  crowded  with 
fruits  of  the  dram-shop. 

This  shocking  sacrifice  of  life,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, does  not  appear  in  our  records.  We  tax 
ourselves  liberally  to  prepare  elaborate  tables 
of  registration,  that  the  causes  of  disease  and 
death  may  be  known  and  the  general  health  pro- 
moted; and  then  falsify  those  records  to  keep 
ourselves  in  countenance.  In  multitudes  of  in- 
stances, congestion  of  the  lungs,  liver,  stomach, 
kidneys,  and  the  like,  is  made  the  agent  of  death, 
where  undeniably  whiskey  strikes  the  fatal  blow. 
We  have  high  authority  for  saying:  "Evil  men 
and  seducers  wax  worse  and  worse,  deceiving  and 
being  deceived." 


40  The  Rectitude  of  Government 


PROHIBITORY   AMENDMENT. 

Let  me,  then,  earnestly  urge  you,  gentlemen,  to 
submit  to  the  whole  people  the  question  whether 
they  will  prohibit  in  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
State  the  further  destruction  of  our  citizens  at  the 
hands  of  the  government.  It  is  the  people's  ques- 
tion. They  have  a  right  to  pronounce  upon  it. 
Let  no  man  claim  to  be  a  patriot  and  withhold  his 
voice  from  giving  them  the  opportunity  in  this  year 
of  grace  1884.  If  in  your  minds  there  is  any  doubt 
of  success,  let  a  campaign  be  fought  on  that  issue. 

The  State  of  Iowa  should  be  your  inspiration. 
One  of  the  great  parties  of  the  State  espoused  the 
cause  of  good  order,  urged  the  constitutional 
amendment,  press  and  platform  taking  up  the  bat- 
tle-cry, and  won  a  victory  both  for  themselves  and 
their  cause. 

Ohio,  on  the  other  hand,  was  halting,  cautious, 
craven  ;  and,  finally  casting  its  fortunes  into  the 
scale  of  misrule,  it  lost  —  though  the  cause  of  re- 
form itself  came  well-nigh  succeeding  ;  perhaps  by 
an  honest  count  would  have  succeeded. 

An  Ohio  correspondent,  the  Rev.  E.  A.  Stone, 
of  Galion,  in  The  Watchman  of  this  city,  Dec.  27, 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  41 

1883,  makes   the   following  very  emphatic   state- 
ments : 

"The  returns  since  the  battle  from  all  sections  of  the 
State  show  that  had  the  votes  been  honestly  counted,  the 
amendment  was  carried  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  and 
this  is  not  guess-work,  but  careful  counts  and  estimates 
from  all  sections.  We  have  sat  down  supinely  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  greatest  disgrace  that  ever  fell  on  a  free 
people,  the  violent,  wilful  and  deliberate  setting  aside  of 
our  united  voice  at  the  ballot-box.  Shout  it  out  to  the 
whole  land, —  Ohio  carried  the  second  amendment,  but  the 
leaders  of  both  the  great  parties  were  so  corrupted  by  the 
money  power  of  the  liguor  traffic  that  they  have  refused  to 
listen  to  the  voice  of  the  majority.  The  conviction  of  every 
investigator  must  be  that  the  majority  for  prohibition  was 
large,  in  spite  of  the  antagonism  of  every  political  paper 
of  importance,  and  of  the  leading  speakers  and  candidates 
of  both  parties.  We  were  simply  defrauded  out  of  that 
which  we  won  by  the  hardest  of  work  and  the  honest  pur- 
pose of  our  best  citizens." 

If  such  statements  are  true,  pray  how  much  of 
our  boasted  liberties  remain  to  us  ?  Is  not  the  high 
moral  vote  of  the  North  of  as  much  consequence 
as  the  empty  partisan  vote  of  the  South?  May 
not  the  earnest  temperance  workers  of  Maryland, 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  fling  back  to  the 
North  the  taunt :  "  Give  us  an  honest  count?  " 


42  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  under  date  of  Oct. 
7,  1882,  falls  into  the  following  inadvertence  : 

"  The  liquor  dealers  are  forcing  the  issue  here  as  they 
are  in  the  Western  States,  and  here,  as  there,  the  sober, 
industrious,  intelligent  and  moral  forces  of  the  community 
will  rally  to  the  security  of  their  interests  with  great  disre- 
gard of  political  party  ties.  Massachusetts  does  not,  any 
more  than  does  Ohio  or  Kansas  or  Maine,  believe  that  the 
business  which  produces  the  larger  part  of  all  the  misery, 
want  and  crime  against  which  the  State  has  to  guard 
should  go  unregulated  or  be  subject  to  inefficient  regula- 
tion." 

Does  the  Advertiser  believe  that  the  liquor  traffic 
is  "  efficiently  regulated  f"  Hear  it  further  : 

"  It  may  as  well  be  understood  that  the  alternative  or 
such  a  statute  as  the  State  now  has  is  not  a  less  stringent, 
but  a  more  stringent  one." 

Thus  does  that  dignified  defender  of  license  con- 
fess we  are  not  doing  the  best  possible  to  restrain 
the  abominations  of  the  drink  traffic,  and  warns  the 
dealer  that  a  more  repressive  law  may  be  feared. 
Surely  "  confession  is  good  for  the  soul." 

"Who  doubts  that  a  campaign  on  this  issue, 
fought  with  anything  like  the  energy  that  has 
marked  the  recent  campaigns  in  our  Common- 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  4& 

wealth  would  be  eminently  successful?  How  al- 
most infinitely  does  it  transcend  any  issue  recently 
before  us.  It  is  unworthy  of  Massachusetts  to  rise 
in  mass  against  a  single  man,  who  has  neither  de- 
stroyed a  life  nor  squandered  a  dollar,  and  leave 
this  gigantic  criminality  to  flaunt  the  black  flag  of 
death  in  our  faces  unchallenged  and  untouched. 
Let  the  meagreness  of  the  majority  in  so  tremen- 
dous a  vote,  warn  us  that  there  is  a  lack  of  funda- 
mental satisfaction  —  not  with  candidates,  but  with 
issues. 

OTHER   DANGERS. 

There  are  other  evils  flourishing  on  Massachu- 
setts soil  which  should  not  be  overlooked.  In  the 
aggregate,  the  woes  they  inflict  are  great.  But 
when  the  drink  curse  shall  have  been  removed,  and 
the  smoke  and  dust  of  the  conflict  shall  have  cleared 
away,  the  greater  part  of  our  remaining  ills  will 
have  disappeared.  With  a  clear  eye,  a  level  head, 
and  a  steady  hand,  we  shall  be  able,  by  accurate, 
repeated,  well-directed  blows,  to  demolish  the  les- 
ser of  the  outgrowths  of  evil  springing  from  other 
roots. 

There  are  dangers,  however,  of  the  most  threat- 
ening proportions,  quite  too  long  neglected,  and  to 


44  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

which  both  our  civil  authorities  and  the  secular 
and  religious  press  pay  altogether  undue  deference. 
There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  annu- 
ally coming  to  our  shores,  untrained  in  our  indus- 
tries, alien  from  our  thought,  and  antagonistic  to 
our  institutions.  Many  of  these,  as  well  as  of 
others  native  to  the  soil,  are  gathered  into  houses 
secluded  from  the  public,  whose  history  and  for- 
tunes are  never  known.  Their  children  by  thou- 
sands are  withdrawn  from  the  public  schools,  left 
to  roam  the  streets,  or  placed  in  parochial  schools, 
under  the  specious  plea  of  securing  to  them  moral 
and  religious  training,  from  entering  which  our 
school  authorities  are  debarred,  leaving  them  to 
the  exclusive  supervision  and  direction  of  the  Rom- 
ish priesthood.  Here  they  are  educated  as  a  caste, 
out  of  sympathy  with  us  as  a  people,  and  the  ready 
tools  of  the  most  wily  foe  that  has  ever  assailed  the 
liberties  of  the  world. 

It  becomes  a  grave  problem  how  a  free  country, 
with  popular  institutions,  tolerating  all  religions, 
and  respecting  in  all  freedom  of  conscience,  should 
bear  itself  towards  a  confessed  foe  of  its  most  vital 
policy.  It  is  a  grave  problem  whether  such  a 
country  should  harbor  within  its  borders,  institu- 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  45 

tions  she  may  not  systematically  visit  and  circum- 
stantially inspect  by  proper  officers  at  any  time. 
It  is  an  equally  grave  problem  whether  she  should 
welcome  to  citizenship  anybody  acknowledging1 
superior  allegiance  to  any  foreign  potentate  whatso- 
ever. As  foreigners  and  religionists,  we  welcome 
them,  with  all  the  world,  as  men  and  brethren;  but 
as  depredators  upon  human  liberty,  whether  civil 
or  religious,  we  reject  them  with  the  utmost  inten- 
sity of  purpose.  To  tolerate  intolerance  is  to  con- 
vert our  toleration  into  intolerance.  Conserve  these 
principles,  and  we  shall  enjoy  a  higher  and  diviner 
civilization  than  the  world  has  ever  yet  seen. 

FUNDAMENTAL    TRUTH. 

In  all  our  studies  of  the  problems  of  social  life, 
there  is  one  fundamental  truth  which  should  be  our 
constant  inspiration:  "  God  hath  made  of  one  blood 
all  nations  of  men  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  all  the 
earth."  Every  man  is  the  brother  of  every  other 
man.  Not  one  of  all  these  who  fall  out  by  the  way, 
is  alien  from  us.  Of  whatsoever  land,  race,  or 
nationality,  he  is  our  brother.  His  interest  is  our 
interest  —  not  constructively,  or  by  the  cant  of  pul- 
pit or  sect;  but  in  deepest  truth;  in  profoundest 


46  The  Rectitude  of  Government 

reality.  When  he  suffers,  we  suffer;  when  he  is 
blest,  we  are  blest.  In  nature,  in  rights,  in  inter- 
est, in  destiny,  one.  All  substantial  advancement 
must  take  all  men  along. 

We  must  beware,  therefore,  of  cliques,  and  par- 
ties, and  sectional  interests  that  shall  in  anywise 
bar  our  endeavors  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
entire  Commonwealth,  and  build  her  fortunes  level 
to  the  highest  possibilities.  God  delights  in  the 
good  of  all  his  children. 

In  closing,  your  Excellency  will  permit  me  to 
proffer  you  respectful  salutations.  Your  great  suc- 
cess through  a  long  professional  career,  achieved 
by  extraordinary  ability  and  rare  personal  energy, 
command  in  this  hour  of  retirement  from  the  gu- 
bernatorial office  general  recognition.  Your  many 
labors  on  more  conspicuous  theatres  have  become 
matters  of  history.  As  our  great  internecine  war 
was  coming  on,  you  warned  the  South  of  the  issue 
of  its  madness.  You  counselled  the  North  of  its 
threatening  dangers,  its  necessity  for  preparation, 
and  the  duty  of  decisive  action  —  backing  your 
counsel  by  braving  the  dangers  of  the  battle-field. 
The  nation  was  taught  by  you  to  regard  the  negro 
as  a  "  contraband  of  war."  Your  heroic  rectitude 


The  Source  of  its  Power.  47 

and  firm  justice  in  New  Orleans  made  you  con- 
spicuous on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  A  similar 
heroism  as  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  face 
of  as  bitter  partisanship  as  often  falls  to  the  lot  of 
a  public  man  to  encounter,  cannot  but  be  salutary 
in  its  influence  upon  all  but  weak  men  among  your 
successors.  The  hearty  good  wishes  of  multitudes 
will  follow  you  whithersoever  you  go. 

And  as  I  turn  to  your  Honor  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  the  honorable  Council,  and  members 
of  the  Legislature,  I  beg  to  extend  to  you 
kindred  congratulations.  Many  of  you  have  ren- 
dered noble  service  in  varied  public  positions. 
You  must  all  be  aware  how  evanescent  and  value- 
less are  the  honors  of  sinister  service,  no  matter  by 
what  multitudes  awarded.  On  the  other  hand, 
profound  and  abiding  is  the  satisfaction  of  having 
contributed  to  build  the  state  in  righteousness, 
and  promote  the  welfare  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions. Let  a  sacred  ambition  command  your 
noblest  service;  and  the  plaudits  of  the  Highest, 
waking  echoes  in  the  hearts  of  the  lowliest,  will 
crown  your  days  with  the  "  peace  that  passeth  all 
understanding." 


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